


the ties that bind

by aizensosuke



Series: ByaRen Week 2018 [6]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Established Relationship, F/F, Family Drama, Introspection, M/M, Marriage, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Kuchiki Byakuya, Trans Kuchiki Rukia, Trans Male Character, Transphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-14
Updated: 2018-11-14
Packaged: 2019-08-23 14:53:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16621121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aizensosuke/pseuds/aizensosuke
Summary: byakuya stands up to the rest of the kuchiki clan.





	the ties that bind

Niko has learned to walk without Renji’s hands hovering at her sides and Touma has said his first word ( _ “cat,” _ to Byakuya’s horror and Yoruichi’s amusement). By the time the two of them turn one year old, the reality crashes over Byakuya like so much cold water that they know so little of the majority of his family that had they been any older, they might have noticed that. If his parents were still alive, he had no doubt the two of them would be in the lives of their grandchildren, but after the continuous stunts the Kuchiki clan pulled where his marriage to Renji was concerned, on top of his pregnancy, Byakuya just kept them away.

“Are you sure about this?” Renji’s hands come to rest at his waist and Byakuya sighs, leaning back into his touch thankfully, enjoying his warmth and closeness. “We don’t have to let any of your family meet them. If all they grew up with was our friends, it’d be fine.”

“No, I am sure about this.” Byakuya glances to where Mao stands, a child in each arm, listening to Niko babble as patiently as possible while Touma holds onto a strand of her cherry blossom hair. “I will deal with my family directly if I must, once and for all.”

The hall of the Kuchiki manor is filled with people who share some of Byakuya’s features, plenty of black hair in the mix and he can see his own grey eyes reflected in several faces. Everyone is well-dressed and well-adorned and he can see a few of them casting judgmental glances around the room, already wondering where he must be. The party this evening is to celebrate his children turning a year old, held after their actual birthdays because Byakuya wanted to celebrate the day itself with the people he truly cared about.

“Are you sure inviting us along was a good idea, nii-sama?” Rukia asks him from his other side, her arms buoyed around where Ichika sits in them, the girl’s expression grave as she peeks through the crack in the doorway. “We aren’t officially members of the Kuchiki clan, not like you.”

The reminder makes the inside of Byakuya’s mouth taste bitter and he nods, casting his gaze to his sister and her wife, to their young daughter. “Official matters be damned.”

Adopting Rukia into his family meant breaking several rules in the process and it had driven Byakuya nearly mad to think he had to reinforce the very rules he was going to break, but he had shaken that way of thinking long ago. Rukia is his little sister and Orihime is her wife, and though Orihime had been hesitant about it at first, worried it might cause more tension, Byakuya had been there to reassure her that she could take the Kuchiki name if she wished.

Byakuya finally pushes open the doors leading into the hall, Niko falling quiet as the large and ornate room brimming with people is revealed. “Members of the Kuchiki clan, welcome to my home, and thank you for coming to celebrate the birthday of my son and daughter.”

Renji makes a small sound behind him when whispers immediately begin and Byakuya feels a familiar anger gnawing at his gut, the shock on some faces quickly disguised but not unnoticed. Did they truly think he would leave Renji behind? Or let go of his children?

_ Relax. It is unbecoming to become visibly frustrated and upset in public. _ “I would hope everyone has suitably learned from the last time we attempted to gather as a family and that no cruel words will be spoken of my husband, my children, my sisters, or my niece.”

The command in his voice silences the whispers and Byakuya smiles thinly, pleased at the quiet that greets his words. “Enjoy the party. We will be around to greet each of you in time.”

Most of the older members of the clan know better than to make a scene in this venue, not when Byakuya can have them quickly removed from him home and suitably cut off from him and his family once and for all. The younger members of the clan are the ones who end up being far more bearable to handle, and no one questions Mao’s presence as she follows behind him and Renji, humming to the children when one of them becomes fussy or upset.

“Your mother is a member of the fourth division, correct?” One woman sways closer and Mao’s eyes widen before she beams and nods. “I thought so. You have her eyes. What are you doing here with Kuchiki taichou and Abarai fukutaichou this evening?”

Mao raises her arms, as if to demonstrate. “The children like me, and I love them, so I offered to come and assist in watching over them this evening. They’re lovely little ones.”

Byakuya smiles at the sound of her voice and flash steps to her side, resting a hand on her shoulder. “Hirai-kun has shown great progress during her time in our division. She will be a seated officer before long, an interesting feat after only nine months.”

“Well, hello there, little one.” One man stoops down just enough to look into Ichika’s wide violet eyes, and the girl stares back at him just as openly. “I don’t recall hearing much about you.”

“She’s my daughter,” Rukia says simply, hoisting Ichika a little higher in her arms, much to the girl’s apparent delight as she smiles at her mother. “Say hello, Ichika. It’s okay.”

Ichika nods and looks back at the man, holding up one small hand. “Hello.”

The man’s eyes widen and he smiles. “Well, well. Who is the other parent in the equation? There were some rumors many years ago that you might end up with Abarai-kun, but, ah…”

Byakuya raises an eyebrow, daring him to continue. He does not.

Rukia shifts, stretching out an arm to wrap around Orihime’s waist, drawing the young woman closer, a clear challenge in her gaze. “This is my wife, Kuchiki Orihime. You should have heard of her. She was one of the humans who came to us and allowed us to defeat Aizen Sosuke and then Yhwach. I married her shortly before she became pregnant with Ichika.”

The man blinks twice at her before smiling, though Byakuya is not a fool and can tell he is more confused by the explanation than anything else. “Well, that’s good, then. She’s a beauty.”

Though the complete lack of vitriol cannot possibly last all night, Byakuya’s shoulders still go tense all over when  _ someone _ behind him uses that dreaded, awful name he cast off when he was still a child. The sound of it makes his stomach twist and he sighs, loosening the muscles in his shoulders, preparing for who knows what from whom. Though he had been using the proper name for hundreds of years, some members of his family were awful.

“Excuse the hell out of me?” Renji demands, and Byakuya twists around, his mouth falling open. “No, you know better than that. He’s the head of your clan, you show him some respect.”

The woman who had spoken— older, fine wrinkles showing in her skin and traces of grey in her hair— frowns at that, her eyes narrowing slightly. “And I am an elder in this clan, a clan to which you do not actually belong. You should show some respect to me as well.”

“Renji has no need to speak respectfully to someone who would choose to provoke my temper in such a way on my children’s birthday.” Byakuya tactfully cuts them both off, not in the mood for this. The tension in the room is already running high without such confrontations, so he raises his voice, ensuring everyone can hear him while he keeps his tone as even as possible. “My name is Kuchiki Byakuya. It has been for years. It is the name given to me by my parents, and it will remain as such. If you do not feel up to using it, you may leave.”

He still remembers that afternoon. Tearful, out of sorts, coming to his parents and asking them  _ What would you have named me if I was a boy? _ The comforting warmth of his mother’s arms, his father’s hand on his back soothing the pain away.  _ You are a boy. _ Because of course he was, even if it had taken all of them a crude amount of time to figure that out.  _ If you want us to give you a new name now, to see if it fits you better, then we can do that. _

_ The other name we had settled on would have been Byakuya. _

Renji’s arm comes to settle around his waist and Byakuya clasps the wrist against his hip, holding it in place. A united front, just as his parents had once been.

“It’s difficult, Kuchiki taichou, to remember such things when you are, ah…” The woman’s eyes drift to Mao, who turns her back to the woman as if protecting the babies from her eyes. Byakuya doesn’t miss the hot, angry flush in her skin, the spark of anger in her gaze. “Choosing to have children. It’s not exactly something a man goes through with, now, is it?”

Rukia sucks in air through her teeth and sets Ichika in Orihime’s arms. “What is that supposed to mean? Do you expect us to follow such antiquated and pointless expectations?”

“You, girl.” A man just behind the woman steps forward, slips an arm around her waist. “You aren’t even a member of our clan in any official way. Just because Kuchiki-sama was willing to take you in out of the academy does not make you one of us.”

So that is how it is going to be. Byakuya takes a deep breath to center himself, wanting to make sure he gets this perfect right, and feels a reverberation deep in his soul.

_ Teach them what happens to those who would stand against you and your family, _ Senbonzakura tells him, and Byakuya smiles at his zanpakuto’s advice.  _ You do not deserve this, and neither do those you hold dear. Cast out those who would seek to harm you and them. _

Byakuya’s reiatsu flares, sudden and bright pink energy nearly flattening everyone in the room.

He can control it, protects Rukia and Orihime and Ichika, protects Renji and Mao and his children, from the strength of it, but otherwise flexes his minute power. Most of the clan is instantly brought to their knees from the force of it, the strength that Byakuya hardly needs to call out to in order to prove his point. He can almost sense Senbonzakura standing at his back, a reassuring presence and a reminder that in all things, Byakuya is never alone.

“This will end tonight.” He leashes his reiatsu once more, content that the entire clan is now listening to him. “I am exhausted of this behavior. I am well aware that many of you may not like the decisions I have made, the identity that I call my own. You do not like my family. You do not like my husband.” His expression hardens. “But you do not have a right to speak to me, or to them, in such a way. None of them have done anything to earn this.”

“If I may, Kuchiki-sama.” One young man shifts slightly, as if expecting Byakuya to flatten him the rest of the way to the floor. “We simply do not  _ understand. _ You chose a Rukongai dog to call your husband? You are a noble. He only made it as far as he did because of the training of the eleventh and Aizen’s machinations. And to have taken it this far…”

_ A Rukongai dog. _ The expression is not new to Byakuya, of course; he’s heard it whispered amongst his clan, but there’s no hiding the way Renji winces. He isn’t ashamed of his upbringing, but having it thrown in his face by Byakuya’s family must not be easy.

On the contrary, it must be almost physically painful to be constantly reminded of it.

“The girl, too, she was from there. They were friends,” the man continues, as if lacking any sense of self-preservation. Ah, but nobles can be like that, Byakuya included. “You let them into our clan and our family without thinking of how it would reflect on us. The children are, by virtue of having your blood, ours. That is one thing. But—”

Byakuya flattens the man for the hell of it, tipping his head back and sighing softly. “My, and I thought the Kuchiki clan was a family. You all seem to think you have sway over my life.”

Even his parents knew when to give him space, when to communicate that his actions and his choices were of his own making and there was nothing they could do to stop him. They encouraged him and he thinks a good portion of the rest of his clan could learn from that.

“Abarai Renji is my husband.” He says the words very clearly, making sure they sink in, prepared to use his reiatsu to drive the point home if he must. “Kuchiki Rukia is my sister. If you do not like it, you are welcome to leave. You will be leaving the clan in the process.”

The ripple of tension and unease the words cause mean nothing to him; he can feel the purr of Senbonzakura in his ear, the reminder that he isn’t in this alone and would never be. Even if he had to face his clan without his family at his back, he is never alone.

He takes Renji by the hand, drawing the man up to his side. The Kuchiki clan had been fine with Rukia’s presence in his life for as long as he could remember, none of them wanting to argue the point with him and accepting that her resemblance to Hisana was why he kept her so close. Some of them, clearly, still took issue with the fact but Byakuya knew the majority of argument was focused around his identity— he would not bend, he would not break— and the man at his side, the one who had been with him ever since fighting his way to Byakuya’s side.

The memory makes him smile now, the moment when Renji accepted the promotion Byakuya offered him without a second thought. Eyes hungry. Ready to challenge him.

In more ways than one, Byakuya is the man he is today specifically because of the presence of Abarai Renji in his life. Always challenging him in more ways than one, always pushing his buttons, always trying to get a rise out of him. Pushing him to be better, to be more, to rise.

So he links his fingers with Renji’s nose, and he can feel the rhythm of the other man’s reiatsu against his own, the presence of Zabimaru meshing well with Senbonzakura. The two of them have always been a unit in more ways than the eye can see.

He owes it to Renji to end his clan’s unfair judgment here and now if he can.

“You all voiced your complaints that I should let a man from Rukongai become my lieutenant even though he more than earned the position on his own merits. You attribute his training to the eleventh; what of it? Everyone must train. No one is naturally gifted enough to rise to such a place on their own.” Even those deemed prodigies had worked hard when it counted, and Byakuya knows this perhaps better than anyone in the room right now. “You attribute his growth to Aizen’s plans, but he was sent away by Aizen. Not placed strategically. You would do well not to mention my husband’s name and that man’s in the same sentence again.”

He takes a deep breath and his reiatsu swells once more, a cloak around his frame more than used to punish those around him, though he can do both easily enough. “Renji fought to save my sister from Aizen’s plans. Renji fought the Arrancar in Hueco Mundo in order to save Orihime. Renji fought the Quincy alongside the rest of us. Renji has always fought, has always been willing to place his life on the line if that is what it takes to do what is right. And he chose to entwine that life with my own.”

It was more than Byakuya deserved, though he doubts he needs to say that aloud. Renji knows how he feels about all of this, and most of his clan would never understand.

“If you disapprove of my marriage to him, then I would ask that you leave the Kuchiki clan. As a family, we have not been accepting enough of others and I would end that now, once and for all, for the sake of my niece and my children, who do not deserve to grow up in such a state.” Byakuya looks at each face individually, stretching out the time as thin as he can, making them feel the weight of his words before he squeezes Renji’s hand. “You can all start with apologizing to my family for the disrespect you have showed them.”

“And to the head of your clan,” Renji adds, and Byakuya looks up at him, surprised. “For putting him through this time and time again. And you  _ will _ address him correctly.”

It takes at least an hour, and a few people do indeed walk out of the house, but Byakuya lets them go without a second thought for the good of his family. Renji remains a rock at his side, his hand warm in Byakuya’s own, their twined fingers keeping him calm and grounded. When the ordeal is over, he turns to Mao and accepts Touma, who immediately twists around to reach for him, always aware of when Byakuya is upset. Niko is content in her protector’s arms, babbling happily up at Mao while Mao soothes her soft red curls.

“Nii-sama,” Rukia says, touching his elbow, drawing his attention to her pensive expression. “Are you okay? That was… More or less what I thought would occur this evening.”

Byakuya presses his cheek against Touma’s raven black hair and smiles softly. “Yes, Rukia,” he says, and he feels like he means it this time. “I am perfectly fine.”

He has a beautiful family right here at the heart of this room, and that is all he cares about.


End file.
